1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to activity toys and infant walkers, and more particularly to an activity toy and walker device for prompting and promoting interactive play, motor skill development and educational development of a child.
2. Background Art
Walkers of the type primarily intended to aide infants in their walking development, have been around for many years. Furthermore, several of such prior art devices have been constructed so as to enable positioning of the walker between a substantially collapsed orientation and a substantially upright orientation, two examples of which are: Patrick, U.S. Pat. No. 2,884,046; and Pape et al., U.S. Pat. No. Des. 321,216. Patrick, '046, discloses a walker comprising a substantially rectangular truncated pyramide shaped frame and a handle member. The handle member is retractable and the frame can be telescopically compressed upon positioning of the walker into its collapsed orientation. Pape et al. '216, although shown in a substantially upright orientation, is indeed collapsible. Pape et al., '216 includes a frame comprised of a top portion, a bottom portion and two support bars. Collapsing of the frame is accomplished by releasing both of the two support bars from their lockable engagement with the bottom portion, and then folding each of the support bars toward the top portion. Either after the folding of the support bars, or simultaneously therewith, both the top portion and the support bars are pivoted adjacent the bottom portion of the frame. Although such prior art walkers have been suitable for use by a child, they have required excessive material and/or elements in their construction, and are rather burdensome and time consuming relative to their deployability between the collapsed and erected orientations.
Activity sets used in association with walkers have also been known in the art for several years--such as shown in Pape et al. '216. Although such activity toy/walker combinations have been functionally acceptable as a unitary device, none of such prior art appears to disclose activity devices which are releasably attached to the frame of the walker itself for enabling independent use of the activity set separate and apart from the walker to which it is releasably attached.